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Poetry by Heart Competition

On Wednesday, 23rd May, eighteen fine spoken poets from Year 7 took to the stage to recite their choice of verse in Churchill’s first ever competition of this kind. The finalists were put forward by their English teachers to represent their class, after being taught about how to use voice, body language and memory to present a poem, and they all came prepared to wow us. That they did! The audience taken on a journey through each poem, as we were drawn in by the students’ focus and theatrics which had us hanging on their every word.

Emily Kendrick (7WRO) was presented the place of overall winner with her stirring recital of The Snake by Denise Levertov. In second place was Jess Heath (7WKB) with an inspiring poem she wrote alongside Phoebe Johnston (7WVP) about hope for the future. Andrew Bowman (7TMB) who wrote and performed a star of a poem about the cosmos that he named The Endless World came third. The highly commended prizes were awarded to Tom Collard (7TES) for his moving rendition of his own heartfelt poem called Sacrifice, and Maya-Rose Crozier-Cole (7TCB) for her RSC-worthy performance of the self-written Midnight Wolf.

Well done and congratulations to all on this amazing achievement. Thanks, also, to poet Thommie Gillow who came in to perform to us and judge the competition alongside Mr Hildrew, Ms Birkett, Mr Clarke and the event organiser Ms Lowrie.